Meet The Panel
Ady is a sewing & knitting ninja. She pedals things (in both meanings of the word) across the city, some times just to create yummy smoothies. She sells her hand-sewn frocks and such under the name of Embley (muffinbutton.tumblr.com). When she has run out of things to knit there is usually a Doctor Who or Firefly marathon she’ll catch. She is currently working on creating a nest in her closet, where she hopes to one day sit for weeks on end with books, poetry, music, and a tea party set.
Word to the wise: do not frack with a girl who spins fire for fun.
Brendan is a divine being of supernatural abilities. He enjoys cheese, baking sweets while listening to loud music and organizing events of epic proportions. He is a strong believer in the merits of sharp, witty retorts, extreme sarcasm, and Monty Python.
And now for something completely different.
Cardiovascular muscle spasms.
Carmen is an optimistic and energetic team player who loves HUGS and meeting new people. She may be petite, but she has LOTS of energy!!! Sometimes she can be a lot to handle. Although that may be true, she is still very serious about handling her business. She is super excited to join the Youth Panel this year. We’re going to create something FIERCE!
Clare’s first year on Panel has been a delight so far and she is ecstatic about IGNITE! Cats, root beer floats, live music and cats are all things that Clare enjoys.
David grew up on a strong hit of Star Wars, Grim Fandango, Devo and the Talking Heads. Today, David goes to SFU, hangs with friends, and games by day; but records silly music under a sillier name by night.
Desiree Nicole is a sixteen year old who often adopts different accents to express how she is feeling. Desiree will often be seen sporting about fifteen friendship bracelets at any given time and if you ask nicely, she MIGHT give you one. Desiree loves to bake muffins. Picnics and tie dying are Desiree’s jam. If she’s not picnicking or tie dying, she is probably dead. Or baking muffins. This is Desiree’s second year on the panel and she loves it. Desiree often wonders if octopuses are going to take over the world and become the new leading species. Scratch that, she knows it.
In her final year of high school, Emma is a first time panel member, and is thrilled to be a part of putting on IGNITE! this year. She brings to panel her perseverance and positive attitude, as well as her undying commitment. Emma adores science, music, and wonderful books and is a proud nerdfighter. Looking forward to May, she anticipates hysterics, lunacy, and many other wonderful things. DFTBA!
Faber was born in the year 200X to anthropomorphic parents he never met. Raised by wolves, bears, and chickadees, he quickly learned an appreciation for the arts. By the age of 9 he was a practising visual artist and was working on his thesis in English Literature. A few years later, however, loggers came and destroyed his home and the family he knew and loved. Escaping the gruesome destruction, he stumbled upon the wonderful city of Vancouver, British Columbia, where he found his new home. Assimilation into this new culture was easier than expected, and soon Faber infiltrated the Cultch’s Youth Panel without them ever suspecting a thing.
Howard is a Canadian, a Taiwanese, a theatre geek, a high school student, a chorister, an actor, a blogger, an INFJ, a procrastinator, and a math nerd. He is extremely excited for his first year in IGNITE! Youth Panel, and hopes to see things blow up at the finale of the festival.
Jasmine is a spoken word poet, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and most importantly, a devoted Zelda fan. Her accomplishments include beating Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Windwaker, Twilight Princess, and is currently working on Skyward Sword. Although she thinks all the games are incredible, her favourite game is Majora’s Mask. “It has such an incredible storyline and characters” says Jasmine, “and the music is just exquisite, although the graphics are a little out of date…” When Jasmine is not doing artistic things or defeating dungeons, she out enjoying the great outdoors. “I’m such a nature freak, MEC is like a candy store to me” Jasmine’s dream is to one day live in a giant treehouse.
Jess is first and foremost, a musician. She sings, plays both guitar and piano, composes, and has taught as an informal vocal coach and guitar teacher. She’s currently the frontwoman of local rock band, Bad Johnny Law (www.badjohnnylaw.com), as well as exploring her individual compositions in a solo project. She is also the author of The Singer Diaries blog. Jess is best described as passionate, opinionated, and extremely extroverted. She’s always open to meeting new people, and has had a blast on the panel thus far!
Julia has a strange kinship with unicorns and T-rex’s. She tends to act like raptors severely at inappropriate times and she really enjoys croissants and perogies. Her pass times include long walks on the beach, and improving songs about flying cats.
Lukas rides bikes, he fixes and builds stuff, watches Doctor Who, spins fire, wears a flat cap, and eats breakfast every day. More importantly, though, he drinks tea, lots of tea. Come to think of it, he might drink some coffee too, but usually only when it’s around. He works as a lighting and sound technician in many theatres around town and for a handful of festivals too, which as a matter of fact, he got started doing during Ignite! He likes cookies, crazy nighttime adventures, warm blankets, not writing in the third person, pointy and/or flammable objects, and knitting. This is Lukas’s fourth (he thinks) year on panel. Unfortunately, Lukas has to get up early in the morning for work, so this is all the bio you get!
Maddy is a first year panel member, and thinks it is absolutely wonderful. When she’s not attempting desperately to sound clever in her bios, she enjoys devouring blue cheese, and reading books about twelve year old detectives.
Marina enjoys pina coladas and getting caught in the rain. Much like this bio she is short and sweet.
Maya is said to be descended from wild forest cats, but says she hates cats nonetheless. Maya can often be found yelling about women’s rights or the government and over pronouncing Vegetable (she insists its veg-ee-table) Maya hates it when you drink straight out of a milk carton and loves The Smiths, one time, she managed to convince quite a few people that there was a dead rabbit in her closet. Maya belongs to a secret order of knitters that congregate in parks with various baked goods, this is Maya’s first year on the panel.
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away…Michelle was born. She has been born into the lifeless, boring planet Tatooine But then the Empire decided to attack her family and the galaxy with there evil powers of doom. So she, being part of the Rebel Alliance, decided to take action and leave her home town to help fight for justice and peace. While not fighting evil she likes to bike, paint, eat food (even while fighting because that’s how badass she is), watch movies, volunteer and be nerdy. She also seeks justice in the arts, global issues, the education system (clearly it sucks, and needs to be changed), and her ancestors, the First Nations. Over all, Michelle is known to be the “Director of Operations” for the Youth Panel. She can be known to take on more than she can handle, but she strives to do her best. This is also Michelle’s 3 ½ year on panel.
Born in a cross-fire hurricane, Morgan has managed to accomplish quite a bit in her 18 years. She was around when Jesus had his moment of doubt and pain. When the blitzkrieg raged, she was raging right there along with it. She even killed the czar and his ministers.
A clear Rolling Stones enthusiast, Morgan also spends her time idolizing Annie Hall. This is her first year on the youth panel, and she is very excited for the festival.
Nina Houle is a 15-year-old homeschooler, history buff, and all-round maker who has lived all her life in East Vancouver. She loves Lord of the Rings, fencing, reading (she is currently absorbed in Sherlock Holmes, the Eragon books, and Jane Austen’s works), making jewelry, crocheted accessories, pottery, etc., riding her bike, and snowshoeing.
Fids (Phoebe) was born quite some time ago in East Vancouver and has lived there for most of her life. When she isn’t singing, she isn’t awake. She enjoys live music, the Coen brothers, London fogs with nana and speaking in French. Sometimes she writes songs about being on the bus.
Sasha loves ice cream, cupcakes, animals, tropical rainforests, sleeping, rain, biology, taking public transit, running, and snow.
Sasha hates being late, feeling cold, roller coasters, the blisters you get after wearing new shoes, broken headphones, messes, noisy chewers and pulling all nighters for last-minute studying.
She is Russian and knows a little bit of French. This is her first year on the panel. 
Sebastian is passionate about music. He has been known to play guitar for three days straight without sleeping.
This is Shubby’s first year on the IGNITE! Panel and she is so thrilled to be working with such amazing people! While not mercilessly plucking artists for the shows, Shubby can be found creating everything from pancakes to petticoats to penthouse designs, protesting the latest pipeline proposal or, on a very slow day, just enjoying the simpler things in life. Thank you to all who made this festival possible. See you at the shows!
Sophia M. is as old as she is times 4 minus 3, with the numbers reversed around, squared and then square rooted. She lives somewhere that is not a palace covered in chocolate and pink cotton candy. She also lives with two people and they are not her third cousin twice removed or her great-great-great aunt by marriage. She does not have a pet newt. She does not attend Hogwarts School or any Jedi training camps. She plays a musical instrument that is not the spoons. She has been on the Youth Panel at The Cultch not as long as some members but longer than others. She likes to spend her time listening to CDs that don’t contain music and using rods of medal or wood to turn length of fiber into interesting shapes. She also doesn’t believe in trying not to write biographies that don’t make sense. Really, however, she is just who she is. What more do you need to know?
Sophia L. is nostalgic about a time when people were polite and danced to soul and blues, dressed with class, and were famous for being artists and philosophers. She found a reincarnation of this magical and ambiguous time on the East Side. Next year Sophia is off to fairer climes, but in the meantime, she will help make this year’s festival the best it can be.
Style has always had a knack for the preforming arts. He was quick to take advantage of the local community theatre preforming in 5 shows while in high-school. When the opportunity arose for training in Regina he was always up at 6 am to make the two hour trip for theatre training with Do It With Class every weekend. Through the years he slowly morphed into employment behind the camera as an Assistant Director in Saskatchewan. While working on a feature film in Saskatoon his passion was ignited once again for acting.
Late one night Style finished his application for professional Film/TV actor training, bought a one-way plane ticket to Vancouver and Craigslistʼed a condo. He graduated from VADA, Vancouver Academy of Dramatic Arts, with honors in Film/TV acting in March 2011. He currently is working on two of his own short films he wrote, directing and starring in. He also is a frequent flyer to the audition rooms of the top Casting Directors in Vancouver for Film/TV. On top of that, Style devotes many hours to the Indie Film groups in town as an actor, casting assistant, or AD. The west coast with all its rain, sea, mountains and most importantly Kraft Services will be seeing lots of Style in the coming years.
Zoe is a Drive Child. She spends her time shopping for secondhand clothes, snuggling, and ranting about capitalism. She has a pet dragon and enjoys performing with fire. You may find her dancing down the street with a group of loud, joyous people, or simply wrapped up with a good book, wearing an oversized sweater.